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Evidence for beneficial low level radiation effects and radiation hormesis

Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany and Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA

View larger version (33K): [in a new window]   Figure 1. Single low-dose induced adaptive responses have a protecting function through various mechanisms. Note that mechanisms of DNA damage prevention and repair and the immune stimulation decrease after a maximum at doses between 0.1 Gy and 0.2 Gy, in contrast to apoptosis incidence that increases with dose. Absorbed dose is in Gy and also in terms of microdosimetry, in that the mean energy deposition per particle traversal per defined micromass (specific energy ) (ICRU 1983) [1] is multiplied by the number of such events (NH) in the number of exposed micromasses (NE).

View larger version (28K): [in a new window]   Figure 2. Single low-dose induced adaptive responses have different times of duration depending on protective mechanisms that begin with a delay of several hours and may last for days to weeks – and even up to months for immune response. Note that repair in response to radiation damage begins immediately after damage has occurred.

View larger version (44K): [in a new window]   Figure 3. The dual effect of single low dose irradiation is schematically analysed according to a simplified model [10]. The net cancer risk derives from the difference between cancer induction through DNA damage and its prevention at the various dose levels (additional protection against damage accumulation from apoptosis is not shown here).